Tuesday, March 26, 1974 Music of Gay 90's featured in benefit THE MICHIGAN DAILY Page Five Dutch master Brueggen displays {} enchantingL' form on recorder By TONY CECERE A venture into a church to at- tend a benefit concert for the or- gan fund is usually not one of my favorite pastimes. But last Sunday evening when William Bolcom and Joan Morris performed songs of the Gay Nine- ties and the Naughtie Aughties for the First Unitarian Church's organ fund, I couldn't have been more at ease. With Morris dressed in pearls, daring neckline and a red boa, the team approached these songs with almost deadpan serious-, ness, achieving one salient ef- fect: the presentation of these songs as valid and important links inthe evolution of Ameri- can popular music. Bolcom, who is a professor of music composition in the school of Music, couldn't have been more qualified for the task. He recently cut a disc for Nonesuch Records titled Piano Music by George Gershwin (H- 71284) that has sold well and shown Bolcom to be a virtuoso pianist with fine interpretive ideas in this genre. Morris stole the show with her appropriate facial gestures and one - hundred - percent genteel voice, ornamented with just the slightest bit of light vibrato. One has to admire her control to perform lyrics such as these without breaking down in catar- acts of laughter: When I returned dear, There stood a man Kissing my sweetheart As only lovers can .. . The songs deal with a thous- and varieties of several pedes- trian themes: a man losing his wife or lover, a la Meet me in St. Louis, instructive moral les- sons concerning the unfaithful spouse as in Monroe Rosenfeld's Those Wedding Bells Shall Not Ring Out. Songs that elevate women to the level of goddesses are also common. The attitudes of the times sur- face in the lines of these tunes: "Her beauty was sold for an old man's gold" and "She's only a bird in a gilded cage" are two textbook examples of this. Current ideas about love, de- sertion, wealth were positively reinforced in songs such as these. As Bolcom pointed out in his comments to the audience, these "hits" launched American popu- lar music as big business-stars would carry these songs in their repertorie and publishers would print misleading titles to link songs to performers. This yield- ed profits from the sale of sheet music. Musical theatre and the music business in general received a boost, and America was propell- ed into an era where people be- gan to identify with popular songs to an astonishing degree. Some of these songs are pithy and trite. Yet we forget how damn important the topics of these songs were to people. Future times will certainly wonder about our songs too: I Wanna Hold Your Hand is poten- tially as absurd as Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer Do. Bolcom also performs several rags that reflected certain atti- tudes in titles such as The Ef- ficiency Rag and The Modesty Rag-A Classic. His piano playing was alternately truffle light and pigfoot heavy and always in tune with the needs of the music. Current rumors indicate that a record of Nineties' songs might come to pass, partially as a re- sult of this concert. I for'one would be pleased at the production of such a record. It would plug up a gaping hole in the discography of pop music. Kudos are in order for the First Unitarian Church, Morris and Bolcom. A splendid time was had by one and all. By MICHAEL FOLEY Baroque fans gathered once again Sunday night for another exquisite performance at the Uni- versity Reformed Church by Ann Arbor's very own virtuoso ensemble, Ars Musica. Joining Ars Musica for this concert was Frans Brueggen, the famous Dutch master of Bar- oque flute and recorder. Brueg- gen, who is currently teaching at the Royal Conservatory at The Hague, is in the midst of a tour of the United States. aThe program began with the William Lawes Sonata No. 1 in G. minor. Exemplifying early Bar- 4 ' oque style, the piece featured repetitious harmony between the strings. It was my impression that this opening selection was played a bit hesitantly and the overall ef- feet was not as brilliant as is usually to be expected from Ars Musica. Following another early Bar- Daily Photo by KEN FINK oque piece by Turini was Nau- dot's Concerto in G major. Frans Bru~en gen It was in this selection that the pirited By CHRIS PARKS With their production of Tchai- kowsky's Eugene Onegin last weekend the Music School has proven once again that among the many things they do so very well, their operas rank near the top. Sunday night, a near sell-out crowd was treated to a polished performance by a talented and spirited cast. To say the evening was enchanting sounds some- what trite, but, honestly, that's exactly what it was. Onegin is not among the more Multi-media extravaganza set for school of music concert William Albright's Beulahland Rag, a multi-media extravagan- za, will be the highlighted work on a concert to be held Wednes- day at 8:00 pm at the School of Music Recital Hall. Albright's work, presented as part of a recital by pianist Sever Tipei, involves a jazz quartet, a group of performers improvis- ing at the composer's suggestion, actor, tape, and a Mickey Mouse cartoon. They all cooperate to create a complex musical and dramatic situation reminiscent of the psy- chedelic sixties. The narrator, played by Al Phillips, complains about the excesses of 19th cen- tury music - the text is, in fact, made up of newspaper criticisms of such composers as Beethoven and Wagner. Mr. Albright teaches composi- tion at the School of Music. Other works on the program include Honeyreves by the late Italian conductor Bruno Mader- na, a piece for flute and piano using new and refined instru- mental effects, and Marvelous Aphorisms by Gavin Bryars, a text piece. This latter work only suggests a musical or dramatic situation and allows great freedomp to in- vent the actual result. The rea- lization of Marvelous Aphorisms will probably involve both the audience and the performers. Also on the program will be John Cage's Wonderful Widow of Eighteen Springs, composed in 1942. The text is from Finne- gan's Wake by James Joyce. The pianist uses different parts of the*piano lid to produce per- cussive effects; the voice part consists of only three notes. A high-point of the program will be the premiere of Sever Tipei's composition Les Liaisons Dangereuses, a piece for five amateurs composed with the as- sistance of a University com- puter. The work is based on five short excerpts from well-known pieces of traditional music (Machaut to Berg). Sever Tipei is currently work- ing on his doctorate in composi- tion at the University. A native of Romania, he escaped with his family to this country two years ago. His music has been performed widely in Europe, and he is cur- rently pursuing research in the area of computer music. widely known or frequently per- formed operas. In fact, my aging edition of the RCA Victor book of operas doesn't even mention it among the 30 or 40 it lists. But really, it's a very enter- taining show with (as you would expect from Tchaikowsky) a beautiful score and your basic romantic opera plot. The story concerns a young man from Moscow (Onegin) who travels with his friend Lenski, a poet, to visit the family of Len- ski's fiancee Olga. During their visit, Tatyana - Alga's younger sister, a hopeless romantic - falls madly in love with Onegin and commits the in- des'7retion of writing him a gushy love letter. Having no desire to get involv- ed with this love-sick country bumpkin, Onegin rejects her af- fections. In her garden, the pompous and self-centered voung mn explains to the heart-broken Thtyana that he - a sophisticat- ed man of the world--cannot be tied down to a woman and chides her for the frankness of her let- ters. Later - at the urging of Len- ski - Onegin attends a ball on the occasion of Tatyana's birth- day. While dancing with her, he overhears whisnered rumors and sneculations about the nature of his relationship with her. Chagrined and feeling his pride and reputation affronted, Onegin rashly decides to get back at Lenski for making him attend the ball by flirting with Olga. He succeeds all too well. Len- ski is a highly sensitive and pas- sionate young man. Jealous and embarrassed, he explodes, confronting his friend in front of the horrified guests and challenging him to a duel. And, following the 19th century gentleman's code of honor, One- gin, of course, must accept. In a duel at dawn outside the city, Onegin kills Lenski and flees the city in disgrace. In the last act, he returns after years of lonely wandering to the court of his cousin, Prince Gre- min. He barely recognizes the charming and poised young wo- man the prince has taken as his twife. She is Tatyana. Onegin is instantly infatuated. He seeks Tatyana out and de- clares his love. In the sad and touching final scene, she admits she still loves him. "Once we could have been so happy . . . Oh, God, so happy," they sing. "Follow me to joy and bliss," he entreats. But she can- not. "What is past," she sings, cannot return. Gripped with anguish and des- pair, Onegin cries out, "Repuls- ed! Condemned, to meet a lone- ly end," covers his face and rushes off stage as the curtain falls. Julia Lee Conwell as Tatyana thrilled the audience with her sweet, romantic opera voice. In the second scene of the first act where . she had the stage alone as she composed her love letter to Onegin she had a real opportunity to demonstrate the beautiful, lilting qualities of her voice. The audience was wowed. Ken Hicks came very close to stealing the show with his rendi- tion of the poet Lenski. In addi- tion to having a fine voice, Hicks is a marvelously animated actor. In the ballroom and duel scenes of the second act, Hicks was dynamic and the theater- goers showed their appreciation with loud and prolonged ap- plause. - 214 s.u niesuy audience first heard the true vir- tuosity of Frans Brueggen. His thoroughly enchanting perform- ance highlighted all three move- ments of this late Baroque piece. Furthermore, his easy, melli- fluous execution of the difficult passage seemed to encourage the rest of the group and thus im- proved the whole quality of the performance. The last movement of this piece was especially beautiful and it ended the first half of the concert in a lively tempo. Following the intermission was Georg Muffat's Passacaglia. Fea- tured in this work for strings were some rather complex pat- terns of variation on one basic theme. Although the piece may have seemed unorganized, it was nev- ertheless a particularly good performance, especially by the violins. Comfortably inserted in the program was the familiar Suite No. 3 by J. S. Bach, whose birth- day passed just last week. ~Onein' Michael Jordon used his su- perb voice voice effectively in his part as Onegin. And Z. Ed- mund Tolliver and Mary Rubel did very well in their somewhat smaller roles as Gremin and Olga respectively. The scenery was among the best I've ever seen in Mendels- sohn. Rather that stretch limited resources in an attempt to cre- ate elaborate sets (an attempt which usually comes off as clos- er to tacky than elegant), just a few simple pieces were employ- ed in combination with excellent and subtle lighting effects to create scenes which did much to heighten the romantic effect of the over-all production. And, I would be remiss if I failed to say a word abopt the folks in the pit. Bravo! The or- chestra, under the baton of Jo- sef Blatt, put on a polished- spirited but never overstated- performance. I realize I have a special pre- judice in favor of the horns hav- ing once been a horn player, but they were magnificent, and the Tchaikowsky score gave them ample opportunity to display their considerable talent and lovely tone. Mon.-Thurs., 7:15 & Fri.-Sun., 6:45, 8:30, 9:00 10:15 Displaying beautiful resonance in the upper strings, this old favorite was masterfully played. Brueggen joined the group once again for Couperin's Nightingale in Love. In introducing this piece, Brueggen explained the substitution of the flute for the solo harpsichord and the irony of this substitution as this partic- ular flute is quite low in key as contrasted with a "soprano" nightingale. Brueggen then proceeded, in his rather unorthodox style, to thoroughly enchant the audience with his performance of this piece with it's basic theme and Unwanted Merchandise, People or things around? Get rid of them through CLASSIFIE DS 10 words-1.0 764-0557 10--4 p.m. daily variations. The final selection, Vivaldi's Concerto in F major, featured muted strings and, once again, Brueggen on recorder. This piece consisted of three movements of contrasting templo. Once again, Brueggen led the ensemble on recorder, display- ing excellent versatility first in the slow deliberate tempo of the second movement, next in the extreme liveliness of the third. In compliance with the audi- ence, the ensemble played the third movement once more, pro- viding a fitting end to a thor- oughly satisfying evening. SHOW TIMES I ARTS _t -... . . F A T April 1974 PART 11 MARCH 25-31 or ATTENTION STREAKERS. Centicore wishes to extend its warmest appreciation to those who made our streaker sale the most4 memorable and enjoyable sale in Ann Arbor's his- tory. We remind the participants that their pictures + are ready and we hope to be seeing you again soon. Watch the ads for our next event for streakers.; CENTI CORE BOOKSHOP 336 MAYNARD 1229 S.U. hammemaamaaamam'IN.e UNION GALLERY 1st floor, Michigan Union painting-sculpture-jewelry photography-prints by Flax/Gardiner/Gordon/Locca J ones/J udkiss/Koch/Lowe I Orlin/Reinhart/Thon/Trupp Special Gallery hours for BFA show: EVERY DAY FROM 10 A.M. TO 5 P.M. Telephone 761-2924 SAT., SUN., & WED. AT 1, 3, 5, 7, & 9:05 Monday & Tuesday at 7 p m. & 9 p.m. WINNER Best Foreign FILM ACADEMY AWARD NOMINATION TRUFFAUT'S FOR I t tj Ii' You are cordially invited to a reception for the artists on March 25 at 8 p.m 11 I 603 E. Liberty I TRANSCENDENTAL MEDITATION DIAL 665-6290 Open 12:45. Shows at 1, 3, 5, 7, & 9 P.M. 3 Academy Award Nominations incl. BEST ACTOR JACK NICHQLSON "THE LASTb] DETAIL" R ARTHUR PENN'S BONNIE AND CLYDE 6:67 Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway pair up as the egendary Depression gangsters in Penn's controver- sial tragic-comic look at violence and the American post. ERNST LUBITSCH'S TROUBLE IN PARADISE (at 8:30) 1932 A comedy of continental manners and morals with two clever high-class thieves providing the wit, polish, and charm. With Miriam Hopkins, Adolphe Meniu, Kay Francis. CINEMA GUILD $1 each show ARCHITECTURE AUD. 12th ANN ARBOR FILM FESTIVAL AWARDS Specia Commendation: Antonia - Jill $100 Eggnog Karl Krogstad Godmilow and Judy Collins $100 Flesh Flows Adam Beckett (Tom Berman Award) $750 $100 Focus Martha Haslanger Scream Bloody Mary Drew Suss $100 Forest Franklin Miller $200 Quarry Richard Rogers $100 Sausage City Adam Beckett $200 Shoeshine Douglas Cheek ' 4',t n\on A_ i iAn.. AS TAUGHT BY MAHARSHI MAHESH YOGI4 * Practical a s p e c t of tha science of creative intelli- gence. 0 Provides deep rest and re- laxation as preparation for I I _ U:_W :. .t